T with Honey

I have breast cancer on the brain right now, but for good reasons.  My mom, a 15+ year survivor of breast cancer has qualified for a genetic study.  Since she and her mom, or as I called her, Grandma both had breast cancer there is a possibility that there may be a genetic factor at work.  They will be testing mom’s DNA for 2 known breast-cancer gene mutations.  By testing her DNA the women in our family will know if we inherited a higher risk of developing breast cancer without having to undergo the testing ourselves and potentially have this information on our medical charts and become flagged as a risk to health insurance providers.  (This is part of the reason I am very much opposed to ‘for profit’ companies providing and making decisions about health care.  It seems wrong to make money by deciding who should get what kind of medical treatments, but I digress.)  My 3 aunts, 6 female cousins, my daughter and myself can use this information to qualify for mammograms at an earlier age and allow ourselves and our health providers to be even more vigilant and cautious when it comes to breast cancer concerns.  Knowledge can be powerful.

Mom and Grandma both had a lump to tell them that breast cancer had invaded their bodies.  It turns out that not all forms of breast cancer announce themselves with a lump.  At the request of WhyMommy I am posting her message about Inflammatory Breast Cancer here.  She wants the message to spread as fast as the cancer does in the hopes of saving women’s lives.

We hear a lot about breast cancer these days. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes, and there are millions living with it in the U.S. today alone. But did you know that there is more than one type of breast cancer?

I didn’t. I thought that breast cancer was all the same. I figured that if I did my monthly breast self-exams, and found no lump, I’d be fine.

Oops. It turns out that you don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer. Six weeks ago, I went to my OB/GYN because my breast felt funny. It was red, hot, inflamed, and the skin looked…funny. But there was no lump, so I wasn’t worried. I should have been. After a round of antibiotics didn’t clear up the inflammation, my doctor sent me to a breast specialist and did a skin punch biopsy. That test showed that I have inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that can be deadly.

Inflammatory breast cancer is often misdiagnosed as mastitis because many doctors have never seen it before and consider it rare. “Rare” or not, there are over 100,000 women in the U.S. with this cancer right now; only half will survive five years. Please call your OB/GYN if you experience several of the following symptoms in your breast, or any unusual changes: redness, rapid increase in size of one breast, persistent itching of breast or nipple, thickening of breast tissue, stabbing pain, soreness, swelling under the arm, dimpling or ridging (for example, when you take your bra off, the bra marks stay – for a while), flattening or retracting of the nipple, or a texture that looks or feels like an orange (called peau d’orange). Ask if your GYN is familiar with inflammatory breast cancer, and tell her that you’re concerned and want to come in to rule it out.

There is more than one kind of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer is the most aggressive form of breast cancer out there, and early detection is critical. It’s not usually detected by mammogram. It does not usually present with a lump. It may be overlooked with all of the changes that our breasts undergo during the years when we’re pregnant and/or nursing our little ones. It’s important not to miss this one.

Inflammatory breast cancer is detected by women and their doctors who notice a change in one of their breasts. If you notice a change, call your doctor today. Tell her about it. Tell her that you have a friend with this disease, and it’s trying to kill her. Now you know what I wish I had known before six weeks ago.

You don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer.

P.S. Feel free to steal this post too. I’d be happy for anyone in the blogosphere to take it and put it on their site, no questions asked. Dress it up, dress it down, let it run around the place barefoot. I don’t care. But I want the word to get out. I don’t want another young mom — or old man — or anyone in between — to have to stare at this thing on their chest and wonder, is it mastitis? Is it a rash? Am I overreacting? This cancer moves FAST, and early detection and treatment is critical for survival.

Thank you.